SamSaid!

300 MILLION

     It is hard to imagine that our country has grown to 300 million people  –  and much of it in the past 50-75 years. Yet we are small potatoes when compared to China and India which have 1.2 billion and 900,000 respectively. Those figures are approximate and an error factor of plus or minus 100,000 or 200,000 is reasonable. I'm not sure how anyone could even think about conducting a census of that many people.

     My concern is not so much the absolute numbers of Americans; rather it is whether the glue that holds us together is beginning to fail. I refer of course to yhe basic values that were the linch pins of our country when it was formed. Month by month they are being eroded in a senseless manner. Now we have a mentality that says  “You may have your values, but I am here now, so change them”. It is true with religion, the schools, patriotism, laws, rights etc etc. The foundation of our society is being eroded by this kind of mentality. It would be foolish to deny change over time, but there is a big difference between change and dismantling the status quo. Many Americans hate to let go of quality values and replace them with existential convenience.

     How to you plan for a future without anchors or a place to hang you hat? How do you raise children when the noise-making radicals do not concede that there is such a thing as “right” or “wrong”. How to you instill a sense of decency in kids when they are bombarded with filth and obscenity at every turn. Is the 1st Amendment our salvation, or our Achilles heel? A good example is in the area of Art (I am not an artist). No matter what the odious image might be, Art is Art as long as the artist (no matter how deranged) calls it Art.  And most of our bird-brained academicians buy that stuff. Just go to a Gallery and see for youself this highly aclaimed Art (filth).

     The bad part is that these left wing radicals keep labelling this trend as “progressive”, “moving ahead”, or a “new direction”. Nice words, but utterly destructive of time honored standards. So 50 million kids in school cannot engage in prayers or pledge allegiance to the flag (under God) because some clown says “…everyone must change to accommodate me”.. And believe it or not, with a simple brush of the pen, OUR  (the overwhelming majority) right to that kind of education is simply washed away. Obviously, 200 years of history means nothing. Does Judicial activism mean anything to the average American?  Need a better example??

    300 million Americans??   Or 300 million people living in the US who Call themselves Americans?  The death of a culture is not pleasant to watch.

IT'S THE ECONOMY

     During the Clinton years, we heard the campaign issue debate in which the phrase, “It's the economy, stupid” was used. It later became a tongue in cheek quip aimed at the not so swift. Nowadays, the Democrats are more direct in slamming Bush for a sluggish and worrisome economy even though unemployment is at the lowest level in decades, growth in Gross Domestic Product is sustained, the Dow Jones average is at an ALL-TIME high, interest rates are low and inflation is under control. It takes a lot of gall to bad mouth that kind of economic performance  –  especially in the aftermath of the Bush tax cuts enacted a few years back. And for those who want to damn the tax cuts, we might point out that the the additional revenue to the Fed Government after the tax cuts became effective has sliced this year's forcasted budgetary shortfall in half.

     With those kinds of numbers, it takes a lot of misrepresentation or deceit to twist and spin in an effort to bad mouth the President. He has made mistakes (as we all do), but the big ticket economic decisions were right on target. But uderlying all of this data is a bigger question  –  to wit –   why doesn't the mass media  — the big newspapers and TV outlets emphasize the big picture –  the positive picture  — instead of hiding this kind of data on Page 14 and giving free reign to Bush-hating columnists? If you read the NY Times, LA Times  etc, you would get the idea that we are hanging by a thread over an economic cliff.

     Whether it is a recession or a boom, we use the same kinds of statistics to measure the state of the economy. At least, one would think so. Right now, the state of the economy is good  –  strong.  But don't ask the Democrats or the columnists of the NY Times. Fair and honest journalism??

     “It's the economy, stupid”.